VIJAYAWADA: The Tourism Department has decided to use latest technology to calculate the tourist footfall in the State. The officials are planning to conduct a survey soon using satellite accounting system to identify the favourite tourist season, destinations and tourist footfall.
The APTDC conducted a workshop on Tuesday at Bhavani Island in this regard for all the stakeholders.
As part of the satellite accounting, all hotels, tourism destinations and footfall will be monitored and a sample set of questions will be asked to tourists. The set of questions depends on the particular destination.
After the survey, the information will be compiled in a database. A group of 50 people will conduct the survey in each district in the next 15 months.
“Till date, we don’t have a clear data on the exact share of tourism in GSDP. So instead of going with sample surveys, we wanted to conduct a detailed study using satellite accounting technology. In fact, Union Ministry of Tourism is planning to take up the initiative from the coming year,” Himanshu Shukla, Director of APTDC, said.
“Based on the compiled database, we will understand what development can be brought in accommodation, transport and food choices in all tourist destinations,” he said. “Till now , we are conducting regular developmental works and we are unable to understand what to be done on a priority basis. Because of the same, tourists are not happy with the services and we are falling behind. But with this latest satellite accounting, we will work based on the priorities,” Shukla said.